2016, so far has been an interesting one! I had made some big decisions in 2015, and was uncertain about what direction life would take me. I try never to have regrets and accept the road I have to travel. So far, it seems I will have more decisions to make in the upcoming months, but I’m going to take the spring and summer to just go with the flow, and hopefully the best answer will present itself.

So what has Dr. Jen been up to? I have been very fortunate to be asked by Sportside Medical Services to help out at some of their events. Here are some highlights:

Watching rhythmic gymnasts contort and flex in ways I can only dream of, at the Salut Cup International Competition.

Here’s hoping to a just as eventful summer!

]]>https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/may-update/feed/0jlau603675_584135091762323_2073303755295474094_n.jpg1918183_572711206238045_219114101651761453_n.jpg13010634_10154162154659445_2438925943918419810_n40 Dayshttps://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/40-days/
https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/40-days/#respondThu, 11 Feb 2016 00:02:24 +0000http://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/?p=331Continue reading →]]>Today is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent.
The traditional, or rather most common method of observing this religious period is by fasting, or “giving up” something that they consider a vice.

Over the years, this has become somewhat secularized, and even non-Catholics will observe the custom.

I thought about it long and hard, and I could not think of anything I wanted to “give up.” I felt that this would be too easy of a challenge. I thought about things that I wanted to change or accomplish, and decided that this year, I would be using these 40 days to commit to bettering myself.

The past few months have been very stressful; I made some important career choices, and have been struggling with both mental blocks and physical injuries.

I feel it is important to write down goals in order to achieve them – if it’s out there, it’s got to happen!

For the next 40 days, I am committing myself to scheduling 60 minutes of “me time” in which I am to better myself – progressing my workouts, reading a book or all the saved journal articles on my computer, or meditation (which, if you know me, is extremely difficult for me).

Anatomy in Motion, with amazing individuals Gary Ward and Chris Srithraran, changed the way I looked, both at myself, and other individuals, with respect to movement and motion.

I think the quote that hit home for me was from Chris, when he said “human movement in trained, human motion is not.”

I learned so much this past week, and I woke up this morning feeling energized. Did a few 3D exercises as part of my morning flow workout (seriously, the chronic hip pain I’ve been hacking away at with conventional training for the past 2.5 months has almost disappeared since learning these exercises last week), packed my clinic bag (not forgetting my new tools (wedges)), and embarked on a new journey to practice what I learned and hopefully affect my patients.

I was nervous to put into play this new knowledge. It was all so brand new, but I knew that I could only improve my skills if I practice them!

My first success came today with a patient with chronic adductor strain. We’ve been working together for a while, training, manual therapy, taping, etc., he’d get better, and lo and behold he’d go back to playing high level sports and I’d be getting another phone call.

He came in today, limping, and I was ready. I did my normal assessment, and then “zoomed out.” I basically walked across the room and watched my patient move. I saw something right away – something I would have never seen if I had focused on the chief complaint. Experimented a bit with the wedges, encouraged some eccentric loading, and after a few reps with some manual guidance, he took a walk and his eyes bugged out his head – he was walking without pain at all, and I barely touched his hip or adductor!

As Gary would say, we were both totally “chuffed.”

I can’t wait to continue learning, experimenting, and practicing. This has been a total game changer, and I’m looking forward to having some fun.

On a more personal note, with some fat snowflakes making an appearance, I’m looking forward to a pain-free ski/snowboard season! #rideharderlongerbetter

#foreverchanged

]]>https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/anatomy-in-motion/feed/0jlauBalancehttps://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/balance/
https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/balance/#respondMon, 20 Apr 2015 04:22:58 +0000http://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/?p=320Continue reading →]]>In The past few months, I have been burning the candle at both ends. Work commitments have me either running around the city, or glued in front of a computer screen.

It wasn’t so bad in the winter time, but this weekend, with the beautiful weather, I didn’t even have energy to enjoy it.

I knew it was really bad when, trying to finish some work off today, I forgot I had to attend an event I was looking forward to the entire week until my 10 minute reminder went off on my phone. (Too late!)

In my clinical practice, I am always promoting balance. It is the delicate line between work and play, physical and spiritual, and the yin and yang, that makes for a healthy, happy, and functioning individual. I have been neglecting this balance for a while and it is time to re-focus, and work on recreating the balance that is so essential.

The easiest way to start doing this is to create some goals:

Goal 1: Carve out some “me” time in the schedule and stick with it. It is just too easy to work into or schedule something else into that time slot. Must refrain from putting the self last.

Goal 2: Learn to say “no.” Sometimes our own demise is of our own making. We all want to be helpful and useful, but is it driving you crazy?

I will be trying to stick to these goals for the next week, and hopefully I will be able to achieve a little more balance in my life!

]]>https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/balance/feed/0jlauelephant-balanceDon’t be “THAT” guy.https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/dont-be-that-guy/
https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/dont-be-that-guy/#respondMon, 02 Mar 2015 03:17:37 +0000http://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/?p=316Continue reading →]]>This weekend, I was taking a course. It was a very well run, very professional, very informative, and educational. The instructors were funny, had great practical stories, and really facilitated the learning process.

The only thing that marred the experience was “that” guy (well it was a female, but I digress).

“That” guy, is the person who believes he knows everything. He is always making comments, is always interrupting, showing off their assumed vast experience, and always putting his two cents into every conversation (usually some personal experience or anecdote). He essentially WASTES EVERYONE’S TIME.

I am always looking to learn. I don’t care how old you are, what letters you have behind your name, or what profession you are. Everyone can teach me something. I will never know everything. But when I’m paying good money to take a course, I want to learn from the pros that are qualified to TEACH the course.

So to “that” guy – I respect your wealth of knowledge, but there is a time and a place. Be respectful of other people’s learning. I cannot emphasize that enough. Comment when it is relevant, or when it adds to discussion. Opinions needs not to be shared and advice should not be given unless people ask for it.

Neck and low back pain are leading causes of morbidity and health care utilization, as well as one of the leading reasons for workplace absence and disability. A recent study showed that “Individuals seeking care for neck or back pain have worse health status than those who do not seek care. Patients consulting chiropractors alone report fewer comorbidities and are less limited in their activities than those consulting medical doctors.”

While I appreciate the pro-chiropractic message of the study, I have always believed in an integrative approach to healthcare. There is always a time and place for everything. My educational background is in science – biology, physics, and microbiology. I understand the need for research, and practicing evidence-based medicine. I am also a natural healthcare provider and clinician, and sometimes what works in the clinic for a patient cannot be proven through random-controlled trials or experiments. Maybe in that sense, the fact that something cannot be proven outside of patient-reported outcomes makes some medical physicians skeptical.

While chiropractors have the ability to diagnose and are well versed in differential diagnoses (including medical conditions), and treatment options, I would never suggest that a patient not be followed by their medical doctor. While 99% of my practice is generally neuromusculosketal complaints, there is always that 1% that may need more detailed imaging, or referral to specialists.

Therein lies the reason why a good working relationship with the patient’s medical doctor should exist and why an open-dialogue between all healthcare providers is very important. A well-chosen chiropractor can make a huge difference in the outcome of any neuromusculoskeletal complaint.

It is very difficult to communicate treatment, diagnoses, and prognoses if the patient’s medical physician is against chiropractic or has advised their patient not to seek alternative forms of healthcare. I have found that in most occasions, many physicians do not understand what chiropractors do. They hear “stories” and just generalize the profession as “quack” medicine. Most of the time when I am talking to those physicians, I am trying to educate them on what I do, how I practice, and how chiropractic care can benefit their patients.

I am not “reversing degeneration” or “re-aligning the spine” or “curing illness by removing subluxations.” I do not believe that chiropractic is the “answer to everything.”

This rhetoric, unfortunately, has perverted our profession and it will be a long while before this will change, but I digress.

I know this post is a bit lacking in flow – initially this post was much longer, and sounded more like a rant, which is not what I intended this post to be so I had to pare down some paragraphs which affected the overall flow. The main point I wanted to make was that having a well-chosen chiropractor may be a necessary addition to any primary healthcare team; and echoing the author of the first article:

It is my hope that someday in the near future, the primary care community will work hand in hand with primary spine practitioners engaged in a spine continuum of care pathway in order to bring about value-based spine care reform.

]]>https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/missing-a-key-player/feed/0jlauThe Winter Blahshttps://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/the-winter-blahs/
https://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/the-winter-blahs/#respondSat, 11 Jan 2014 05:45:08 +0000http://drjenniferlau.wordpress.com/?p=311Continue reading →]]>This is a bit of a more personal post, and vastly different from the material I usually write about but I felt like sharing as I’m sure many people are feeling the same, and it is important to discuss issues of mental health, no matter how awkward or embarrassing it may seem.

I’m pretty much suffering from the “Winter Blahs.”

The joy and frivolity of Christmas and the holiday season has passed, and it is back to reality of work and the stresses of regular day-to-day life. The fluctuations in weather on the east coast have created long stretches of cold, grey days, and the snow which was once white and beautiful is now blackened and ugly.

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with me – for the past couple of months I have been feeling, for lack of a better term, “weird.” I brushed it off, initially, as over the holidays I seemed to be feeling better, but after that was over, the same symptoms hit me again, and even harder.

I have been having difficulty getting out of bed, and constantly feeling tired. I tried going to bed earlier, but I couldn’t seem to feel rejuvenated. It has been difficult to concentrate at work, and it has even been difficult to stay motivated to exercise. This initially raised some alarm bells in my head as usually when I’m feeling a little blue or stressed, I work out – I lift some weights, I do some cardio to some fast-paced, bass-heavy, music, I sweat until everything that was bumming me out just ends up in a puddle on the floor. The fact that I didn’t even want to work out was the first little niggle in my brain that something wasn’t balanced.

Then I noticed how I was eating – voraciously. I was constantly hungry. Now, I love food. All kinds of food. The hashtag #iworkouttoeat is basically me. But I’ve always had a regular appetite and am fairly health conscious about my food choices. I was now eating anything and everything. It’s not like I went crazy and started eating massive amounts of junk food. I continued to try to pick healthy choices, but I would crave stuff like french fries, pizza, chocolate, and strangely, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And on more than a few occasions, I would give in, thinking – “oh – if I satisfied my craving, I won’t want to eat crap anymore.” FALSE. I would still be hungry and be craving for a different type of food.

Finally, I started feeling sick. Like I was coming down with a cold or something, but it never fully became a cold. Just always that feeling of “just starting” to get sick. I was upping my vitamins and drinking lots of fluids to ward off what I thought may be a virus, but nothing was working.

My body was telling me something, and I wasn’t listening. It was now screaming so loud I had to do something about it.

They teach us in school the classic signs of depression which includes the loss of energy, motivation, appetite, etc. But with my increase in appetite I had to do some more research. Something was wrong with me, but what? Did I somehow get the double pleasure of suffering from depression and a tape worm??

I have heard and learned about seasonal affective disorder (SAD), but it had slipped my mind until I read an article in the paper about “the most depressing day of the year” – a pseudoscience marketing campaign that started years ago, but it made me recall SAD.

After researching the symptoms of SAD, it seemed to fit the bill. Although I’ve only been experiencing these symptoms for just a couple of months, and this is probably (to the best of my recollection) the first time I’m experiencing this, and I am not a trained mental health professional, I cannot diagnose myself with this condition; however I can safely say I’m most likely suffering from the “winter blahs” (a term I made up but probably has been used elsewhere to describe the gloomy feelings associated with winter).

After I realized that I was probably experiencing some depressive symptoms, I started talking about it with my support network. Some of them told me to shake it off, or that if I went back to my routine, I would be fine (which irked me – and I now realize how awful this must sound to people suffering from real clinical depression), but many others were supportive and let me talk about how I was feeling. A minority indicated that they had these feelings before in the past and recommended some treatments that had worked for them which included: taking a vacation (not possible at the moment), increasing my vitamin D, doing more meditative exercises such as yoga, and light therapy.

As this has been just a recent revelation for me, I cannot really comment on the efficacy of any of these. I am currently doing some research of various studies conducted on SAD and its therapies. In the meanwhile, I have purchased a light therapy box and will try that first and adding some yoga to my currently brief workouts (perhaps it will actually motivate me!)

So what is the point of this post? There’s no educational merit! No tips or tricks, or studies comparing one treatment to another! This isn’t a journal for cryin’ out loud!

As I mentioned above, I believe it is essential to have have an open dialogue about mental health issues. So many people around the world are suffering in silence, either afraid of the stigma, are in denial, or like myself, just had no freakin’ idea what was wrong with them – only that they feel strange.
Mental and spiritual health is an essential part of what makes us whole. If we neglect these parts, how can one ever expect to be an optimized individual?

I could get into the science of the limbic system and how it influences our body physically through emotion, but this post is getting too lengthy as it is. I’ll leave it for another day and put up fancy pictures and everything. Once I get my research together, I’ll try to make another post that will have some educational merit

Please feel free to comment or message me about your own experiences with SAD or depression, or any other mental health issue, and how you’re dealing with or have dealt with it. Open dialogue is key, and support can come from anywhere…even in the blogosphere.

I feel like so many people work out for aesthetics rather than to exercise for performance and function (for daily life). When some people don’t get the “look” they give up and become sedentary or worse, result to surgical options.

My thought is that it is more important to be “metabollically” fit. Physical weight does not dictate whether we are healthy on the inside (for example, insulin resistance.)
You have many people who will achieve their goal weights with diet, but no exercise, and it doesn’t quite match up – you could be “technically” healthy according to the calculated BMI, but inside you could have a lot of visceral fat affecting your health metabollically leading to chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancers, and heart disease.
This is not to say that obesity does not contribute to chronic disease; but it does suggest that there are other factors at play and that the lack of physical activity seems to be contributing to the development of such diseases.

Bottom line: Move to be healthy – and you’ll be gorgeous inside and out!